Aaron Clay is a level 1 DCI Judge. Adam Cai is a regular on the StarCityGames Open Circuit. Both players are competing with one of the best colors in the format: white. However Adam's list is lacking something quite interesting: he opted to not run Stoneforge Mystic, the format's perennial tutor of equipment!

Both players discussed the previous day's matches as they shuffled up and began to battle. This early in the morning things tend to be pretty relaxed.

Aaron played a Tower of the Magistrate, which was quickly met with a Wasteland from Adam. Aaron chose to Brainstorm in response, but the land was still destined for the grumper. Adam cast a Fauna Shaman, and with Aaron tapped out it would resolve. Adam swung in for two with an exalted Hierarch and shipped the turn.

Although composed of only tiny creatures, Adam's army was growing sizeable. Aaron was resigned to simply play a land and pass. Adam went into the tank. He played a forest then attacked for another five with his Qasali Pridemage. Adam searched out a land, dropping to 12 life, then cast a Snapcaster Mage targeting his Brainstorm. Aaron chose to chump block the cat, then Adam added a Knight of the Reliquary to his team. Aaron needed an answer, and fast!

Aaron was able to play a Polluted Delta on his next turn, making Adam's Wasteland all for naught. Aaron mainphased a Snapcaster Mage targeting an irrelevant Spell Pierce, then cracked his fetch land. He equipped the Jitte, but was still staring down an unimpressed Qasali Pridemage that wasted no time in dispatching the legendary equipment. Adam fetched out a land as well, and the life totals were seven to 14 in Adam's favor.

Game 2

Both players joked about the format, and how good Swords to Plowshares is while they shuffled one another's decks.

Aaron chose to leads off this game, and fortunately had a keepable hand. He led with a Scalding Tarn while Adam played a Windswept heath, cracked it, and played a Noble Hierarch. Unfortunately for Adam, Aaron took his turn and laid another dreaded Stoneforge Mystic. A Batterskull once more found its way to Aaron's hand and he gave the turn to Adam.

Adam now had the opportunity to cast a Qasali Pridemage and took it. He then swung in for two with his exalted Hierarch and passed the turn. Aaron played a land and passed the turn, presenting Adam with the threat of three untapped lands and an active Stoneforge Mystic. Adam played a Maze of Ith then attacked with his Pridemage before Aaron used a Path to Exile on it. It now looked like the coast was clear for Adam's Batterskull to run rampant. Aaron fetched out a Tundra with his Polluted Delta and put a surprising Sword of Body and Mind into play at the end of Adam's turn.

Aaron attacked again bringing Adam down to 12 life while getting a second Wolf and removing ten more cards. Aaron had the Swords to Plowshares for the Knight, but immediately lamented his misplay by letting Adam gain an enormous twelve life! Adam untapped, played a Wasteland, and got rid of another of Aaron's Tundras. He then played a Scavenging Ooze that had a lot of options to feast on. Another attack from Aaron brought Adam to a less threatening 21 life, but his deck was shrinking by the turn.

Aaron Clay

Adam chose to exile some Snapcaster targets in Aaron's graveyard, but during his draw step a Vendilion Clique targeting Adam would prove to make all information known. Adam played a Mother of Runes, but with Aaron now controlling a flier, it might not matter. Adam had a mere thirteen cards in his library as the two players decided to shuffle up and go to game three!

Adam Cai 1, Aaron Clay 1

Game 3

"Do you like Fauna Shaman in there?" Aaron asked, as the two players prepared for game three.

"Oh yeah," Cai responded confidently.

Aaron was going to Paris once more, while Adam was content with his opener. With a mere six minutes left on the clock, would this match end in a draw? Adam led off with a Mother of Runes and quickly passed the turn.

Aaron played a Mishra's Factory and passed the turn. Adam played his forth land - a possible record number - then floated a green mana before sacrificing it to Knight of the Reliquary. He found a Wasteland with the intent to get rid of Aaron's Tundra. In response, Aaron chose to Brainstorm, but he forgot that it would cost him two mana instead of one. He floated a blue mana and Adam played a Scavenging Ooze. Aaron was now at 14 life after an attack and it was his turn. With a Wasteland of his own, he passed the turn back with little action. Adam used his Wasteland to get rid of Aaron's Factory and Aaron responded with a Snapcaster. He chump blocked the Knight, and dropped down to 11 life. Without a third land to his name, things were looking grim for Aaron. Adam attacked for another four damage, dropping Aaron to seven life, but with Adam threatening nine power on board it was time for Aaron to pack it up!

Adam Cai 2, Aaron Clay 1

Sunday, 11:18 a.m. – Deck Tech: GW Aggro with Adam Cai

by Frank Lepore

While GW Aggro might be one of the runaway archetypes in Legacy this weekend, as Adam Cai marks his return to the country, he's playing something a little bit different. With a record of 9-1 he's gotta be doing something right, so let's check out what he has in store!

The main thing you'll notice in Adam's list is the lack of Stoneforge Mystic. Yes, that's right: one of the format's most defining cards is noticeably absent in deck that contains both white cards and equipment. Why would Adam chose to omit Stoneforge Mystic?

"Well, it's just bad." Adam said. He went on to clarify that he was joking and he was really just going for a different strategy.

You see his deck is more concerned with beating the other GW Aggro decks, and even the UW Stone-Blade decks. Another thing you might have noticed is the singleton Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Loyal Retainers in the deck. Adam said that the Elesh Norn had been insane for him all weekend!

Another game Adam mentioned was where he had a Gaea's Cradle in play and ended up removing his opponent's entire graveyard in two turn with Scavenging Ooze!

When asked what the deck's bad matchups might be, Adam informed that he had been out of the country for a while so he wasn't really sure. "Combo, maybe?" Even then, the Thalias seem like they might put a hurting on his combo opponents.

Adam Cai has been tearing up the event with a mere one loss, and he doesn't seem to show any signs of stopping! Could this be the latest evolution of GW Aggro? Hopefully we'll see in a few short hours!

Sunday, 11:42 a.m. – Day 2 Metagame Breakdown

by Nate Price

So here's a quick breakdown of the decks that made Day 2:

UW Stone Blade – 22

GW Stone Blade – 22

Canadian Threshold – 15

High Tide – 9

Dredge – 9

Bant Stone Blade – 8

Ad Nauseum Tendrils – 5

Belcher – 5

Esper Stone Blade – 5

Reanimator – 4

Red Deck Wins – 4

UR Delver – 4

Zoo – 4

Elves – 3

Hive Mind – 3

43 Lands – 2

BUG Control – 2

RUG No Threshold – 2

Show and Tell – 2

Sneak and Tell – 2

Team America – 2

Tezzeret Affinity – 2

Thopter Sword – 2

White Weenie Stone Blade – 2

Affinity – 1

Aggro Loam – 1

Budget Bant – 1

BW Tokens – 1

Dark Aggro Loam – 1

Dream Halls – 1

Enchantress – 1

Goblins – 1

GW Stone Blade w/ Punishing Fire – 1

Merfolk – 1

Monoblack Control – 1

Naya Fire Control – 1

Painted Stone – 1

The Rock – 1

StifleNaut – 1

Tezzeret Thopter Sword – 1

UB Delver – 1

As expected from our 20/20 Visions yesterday, the three most represented decks are GW Stone Blade, UW Stone blade, and Canadian Threshold, making up over a third of the field. These decks are brutally efficient at dispatching opponents and pack just enough disruption to provide a problem for the myriad of combo decks in the field. Speaking of the myriad of combo decks, following after the big three are an assortment of the bigger combo decks in the field. Decks like High Tide, which Michael Bernat used to go undefeated on Day 1, and perennial powers like Dredge, Ad Nauseum Tendrils, and Belcher are all well represented in Day 2, though clearly not to the degree of the big three. Past that, the diversity of Legacy makes itself apparent, with 26 different decks only having one or two representations in the field. It really is anything goes here at Grand Prix Indianapolis, and, if this field is any indicator, anyone has a chance to win.

Sunday, 11:42 a.m. – Day 2 Metagame Breakdown

by Nate Price

Ding! Round 11...

This was the marquee matchup that had really come to define what we've seen from Legacy this weekend, and it happened to occur between the last two 10-0 players: Jason Ford with Canadian Threshold against Tom Martell and his Esper Stone Blade deck. Both decks are variations on previous powerhouses with some new additions to push them over the edge in Legacy. Ford's Canadian threshold deck has its roots in the threshold decks of old, using cheap cantrips to fill the graveyard and provide a constant stream of threats and a stream of burn to both clear the way and finish opponents off. The newest addition to the deck is Delver of Secrets, who flips on

command thanks to Ponder and Brainstorm, providing an incredibly efficient three-powered attacker. Martell's Esper Stone Blade is the most recent descendant of the Caw Blade decks that terrorized Standard for what seemed like an eternity. This deck uses Stoneforge Mystic to snag a quick piece of equipment and then slaps it on a cheap creature to take control of the game. It backs this plan up with various control elements, from Inquisition of Kozilek, Force of Will, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The most recent addition to this deck is the multi-format all-star: Lingering Souls. This card replaces the Squadron Hawks of old and provides an incredibly cheap, very versatile string of creatures.

Ford opened his game with a Tropical Island and an obviously freshly drawn Ponder, and kept the cards on top of his deck, clearly liking what he saw. Martell followed suit with a Ponder of his own, really giving the card its namesake, thinking for a minute before keeping his on top as well. Ford made his first creature of the match, a Delver of Secrets that was sure to flip on the following turn thanks to Ponder's stacking ability.

Martell cracked a Flooded Strand on his turn, and Ford asked him what he was searching out.

"Just the prettiest Island in the world," Martell responded with a dreamy quality to his voice.

Being a Euro Italy Island, I was forced to agree. After putting it into play, he made a Lingering Souls, providing a pair of blockers to stop the Delver, though he knew they wouldn't last long. True to form, Ford flipped his Delver, revealing a Force of Will, and used the Forked Bolt to clear away both creatures. The newly-transformed Insectile Aberration flipped, attacking Martell for three. Martell wanted to see what he was up against, aiming an Inquisition of Kozilek at Ford's hand, taking Lightning Bolt, Ford's only card other than the Force of Will. He soon stripped that from Ford, who had to cast it to stop Martell from flashing back Lingering Souls.

During Ford's upkeep, Martell used an Intuition to fetch three more copies of Lingering Souls. Playing it in ford's upkeep like that forced Ford to use mana to stop it on his turn, which would neuter any possible plays he might have. Ford had nothing and let it resolve. His attack dropped Martell to 6, but it looked like Martell would soon gain control. Sure enough, Martell spent his turn flashing back two copies of Lingering Souls, creating four tokens in the process. Ford wasted no time in attacking into them, and Martell had to think about his blocks. He was definitely blocking the Aberration, but if he only blocked with two and Ford had a removal spell, it would blow him out and leave the Aberration alive. In the end, he realized that any burn would most likely be aimed at his head at that point and blocked with two tokens. Ford indeed let the Aberration die and passed the turn.

On his turn, Martell began to try to reestablish himself. He used a Snapcaster Mage to replay Inquisition of Kozilek, to which Ford responded with Lightning Bolt, dropping Martel to 3. The Inquisition revealed Forked Bolt, Snapcaster Mage, and Force of Will. "Well. That's a pretty big game," Martell said, realizing how difficult his position was. He took the Snapcaster and made a big show of putting his Flooded Strand off to the side. He then crossed his fingers as he tapped out to play Umezawa's Jitte, which would soon be able to gain him the life needed to get out of the Danger Zone. When his deck didn't provide an immediate answer, and realizing that there was no way he could beat a Jitte with counters on it, Ford conceded.

Jason Ford 0 – Tom Martell 1

"That was not the correct Intuition. As soon as I cast it, I was like, 'That was so dumb...' The right Intuition was Swords to Plowshares. Then I can Swords the Aberration and stay at nine, which is enough life to find something to do later. I had the Snapcaster in my hand, too, so I could have always just recast Intuition at some point for the Lingering Souls. I even represented the swords to Plowshares, but why didn't I just get the Swords?"

Jason Ford

Game 2 started a little slow from Ford considering that he has eight creatures in his deck that can be played for one mana, as well as Ponder, Brainstorm, and Thought Scour. All he did was play a Volcanic Island and pass the turn. Martell didn't wait, though, playing a Ponder of his own off of the "prettiest Island in the world," keeping his cards on top. Ford got back onto the board with a 2/3 Tarmogoyf which wasn't long for this world. After drawing the second of the cards he wanted from the Ponder, Martell washed his library with a Marsh Flats, grabbing a Plains to cast Swords to Plowshares to rid himself of the Goyf.

Ford found additional pressure on the next turn, Brainstorming into a Nimble Mongoose that was leagues away from threshold. He also played a Wasteland, which Martell had been careful to play around thus far, fetching only basic lands. That trend continued on the following turn as he played a Swamp before recruiting Stoneforge Mystic, adding a potentially devastating Batterskull to his arsenal. For wasted no time in frying the Mystic with a Lightning Bolt, to which Martell responded with a Brainstorm. When the dust settled, the Mystic was dead, and Ford had his second card in his graveyard.

Martell tried to make a second Stoneforge Mystic on the next turn, but ford had a Spell Pierce to stop it. Martell was less than pleased, playfully chiding ford for being a jerk. Then, like a true hypocrite, Martel played a Lingering Souls to block Ford's path. At the end of Martell's turn, Ford tried to get something going with a Snapcaster Mage into a Brainstorm, but Martell stopped him with a Spell Pierce. Ford tried a second Brainstorm on his next turn, but his Canadian Threshold deck was finding it difficult to get into threshold. He simply passed the turn with only three cards in his graveyard.

Martell began to attack with his Spirits. The first two dropped Ford back to 20, and two more joined the team after he flashed it back. Things didn't look great for Ford. He did inch himself closer to a better position with a Brainstorm into a Wooded Foothills, putting him very close to threshold, but Martell turned the tables on him once again. Ford had a Forked Bolt stripped away from him when Martell cast Inquisition of Kozilek. Ford chose not to attack because he had five mana up and his last card in hand was a Force of Will. He used it soon after when Martell tried to make another Stoneforge Mystic. Martell's troops attacked, putting Ford to 15. During Martell's upkeep, Ford forced him to pop his Polluted Delta by using Wasteland on it, putting himself into threshold. Still in his upkeep, another Wasteland took the fetched Underground Sea in the graveyard. After drawing, Martell used his remaining four lands to play a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Jace fatesealed Ford, putting the card on the bottom, and Martell passed the turn.

Tom Martell

Ford appeared to be done. He drew his new card and did nothing. Martell kept ticking Jace up, putting yet another card on the bottom of ford's deck. On top of that, he played a Snapcaster Mage to flash back Ponder. Remember that he still hadn't played the Batterskull he fetched up earlier. Ford started attacking Jace, but Martell had enough Spirits from his Lingering Souls to kill the Snapcaster and chump the Mongoose. When he added another set of Spirits with another Lingering Souls, the end of the game was simply going through the motions. Ford twitched for a few more turns before finally picking up his cards and shaking his hand. Tom Martell now sits atop the standings of Grand Prix Indianapolis 2012, a perfect 11-0.

Jason Ford 0 – Tom Martell 2

Sunday, 12:32 p.m. – Deck Tech: Esper Stone Blade with Tom Martell

by Nate Price

Three decks have risen to prominence in this Grand Prix Indianapolis Legacy field: Canadian Threshold, GW Stone Blade, and UW Stone Blade. Despite these decks showing up in force, the man who managed to make it to 11-0 isn't playing any of them. Not exactly.

Tom Martell

Tom Martell's Esper Stone Blade is definitely a variation on the UW Stone Blade decks that are seemingly everywhere this weekend, but the differences between the two decks really put his deck into a category of its own. Here is his list:

When asked why he chose this version of the deck as opposed to the standard UW build that many of the top players in the tournament seem to be running, he had one thing on his mind.

"Lingering Souls is really good. Think of it like this: Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a good card in the traditional UW Stone Blade decks. She takes four turns to do what I can do with this deck in one with Lingering Souls and for the same cost. This deck is a lot like Caw Blade, but rather than spending eight mana on a full set of Squadron Hawks, I have a squad for four mana and only one card."

Lingering Souls has really become a multi-format all-star. It was the breakout card of Grand Prix Kobe 2012, a Dark Ascension Limited tournament. It also made its presence felt strongly at the Standard Grand Prix Baltimore a week later, once again making the Top 5 Cards of the weekend. And I Martell's performance is anything to go by, it's likely to be a Top 5 card of this weekend as well. One of the main reasons that Martell described it as "really good" stems from its ability to take control, not wait for a chance to do so.

"Lingering Souls allows you to take the control route, but you can go really aggressive with the tokens. If you get two copies of Lingering Souls, you can even out race a Tarmogoyf with them. At some point, you can just start leaving one back to block and completely dominate the race."

Despite feeling strongly about this deck, many of Martell's teammates opted for the traditional UW deck, a decision he firmly disagrees with.

"I asked Josh Utter-Leyton why he was playing UW instead of this deck. He said he'd rather have Counterspells than Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, and I completely disagree. I'd rather be proactive and know what's in their hand. Having perfect information is very powerful in this format. I want to know that I can run my Batterskulls out there without fear of a Spell Pierce. When each spell is so much good, like in Legacy, getting one countered can be devastating."

One of the moments of the weekend that was very informative in my mind came from a booth interview with Patrick Sullivan. He talked about one of the hardest skills to learn in Magic: the ability to recognize what phase in the game you are at, be it aggression, defense, or card advantage, and then adopt the proper role. Martell pointed out that the versatility of this deck allows it to play all of those roles very well, as switch between them with ease.

"Lingering Souls is one of those cards that plays really well in every phase. For example, in the last game, after Inquisitioning Jason and taking his Nimble Mongoose, I put him in a situation where I could choose which of my threats I most wanted to resolve, and then force him to react the way that I wanted, eventually resolving my Lingering Souls and going for the throat. That's a very proactive stance where I get to be the aggressive deck, even though it may not look like it on the surface. Then, in the next game, I used Lingering Souls as a temporary wall of creatures, providing myself enough time to get enough control of the game that I could switch to offense. In that game, I got to use Lingering Souls both as defense, preventing him from attacking effectively; card advantage, since I was able to tie up multiple cards of his for the cost of only one card; and eventually aggression, when I got to start attacking. Snapcaster Mage is another of those versatile cards that can serve as both a blocker, attacker, and obvious source of advantage."

With his more proactive bent on the format, Martell seems perfectly matched with a deck that allows him to play the control decks he loves, but be able to directly impact the way the games he plays go, rather than being forced to react as most controlling decks do. The addition of Lingering Souls to the deck provides it an incredible amount of mileage and only takes up four slots in the deck. While it may not seem like much of a difference from the UW version of the deck, Martell is right on the money when he discusses the difference between this version's ability to be proactive as opposed to reactive, and how well perfect information can be used to his advantage. I don't want to call his deck the better version, because I believe that the deck plays differently enough that I consider it a deck unto itself.

Luis got another turn, but a mere Tundra was all that came. It was land go for Luis and simply a "go" from Nate for a few turns. An Oblivion Ring would come down for Luis targeting the only permanent in play: Nate's Lion's Eye Diamond. A Mishra's Factory as Luis' sixth land meant he could finally press some advantage over Nate despite an otherwise empty board.

The game went like this for a couple more turn before Luis ran out a Jace. He used the +2 ability to Fateseal Nate, shipping a Pyretic Ritual to the bottom of his deck. Nate dropped to a mere six life, and the game was looking close. But Nate had a ton of mana in various forms, which allowed him to cast a Burning Wish for a Diminishing Returns in his sideboard!

With the Diminishing Returns having resolved, Nate looked at his hand, and with no Charbelcher he had no choice but to scoop 'em up.

Nate Connor 1, Luis Scott-Vargas 1

Game 3

With Nate having the choice to play, he was at a slight advantage in this matchup. He would keep his initial seven, while Luis went down to six. In this matchup it isn't how many cards you have so much as which cards you have in hand. Luis looked at his new six with disappointment as he sent those back as well. Five...would also not do, so it was off to four cards and the hope of a brighter hand. Luis ended up keeping a hand of Stoneforge Mystic, Force of Will, Polluted Delta, and Spell Snare, which Nate saw from a Gitaxian Probe. Luis found a Mishra's Factory and was still in the game after casting a turn two Stoneforge!

He found another land in the form of Wasteland, and he put a Batterskull into play at Nate's End step. He swung for seven with the Factory, the Batterskull and the Stoneforge Mystic, dropping Nate to 11 and the initial two damage from the Gitaxian Probe. Luis swung for another seven with the whole team, dropping Nate to four and at that point the game was actually over! Luis manages to win an insane game after mulling to a mere four cards!

Nate Connor 1, Luis Scott-Vargas 2

Sunday, 1:19 p.m. – Tech Deck: Charbelcher with Nathan Connor

by Frank Lepore

Nathan Connor is a casual player at heart. He mentioned this multiple times as he described his deck with utter glee. The deck in question was one of the more well known combo decks in the format: 'Belcher, titled after its namesake card, Charbelcher!

Nathan Connor's Charbelcher Deck.

He had a lot of things to say about the deck, so let's display what he's working with.

I asked him what his worst matchup was and his response? "Force of Will." Yes, the card. Pretty much any deck that runs Force of Will will give him some trouble, but even then, he says he's played against 10 Force of Will decks today and he's only lost to three. Either his opponent's are doing something wrong, or he's getting very lucky!

It could be a little of both, as he shows us. "I was in a game where I probed my opponent and saw he had a Force of Will. I said, 'okay.' I go Chrome Mox. He says okay. I go Lotus Petal. He says okay. I remove two Spirit Guides from my hand and mak eight goblins! He sits there and says, 'Well, huh.' And he had the Force of Will!"

Plays like this are par for the deck. It has several ways to win a game and it's hard to prevent them all from occurring. Nate mentioned he cut the Manamorphose since it would often get countered leaving him with no mana and not drawing a card. He has been much happier with the inclusion of Gitaxian Probe which no one counters, it gives him information, and he gets to draw his card. He also made sure to cut a single Land Grant. "Having two in your hand at any time is just the worst!" he said.

There are quite a few combo decks in Legacy and Charbelcher can hang with the best of them. As the only deck in Legacy that gets by with only one land in the entire 75 cards, it's definitely a breed of its own!

Round 13 Feature Match - Lewis Laskin vs. Steve Rubin

by Nate Price

This round presented an opportunity to showcase a couple of unique talents and a unique deck. Lewis Laskin, from Washington DC, is playing a very cool BUG Control deck that is well tailored for the format. His opponent, Steve Rubin, from Pittsburgh, managed to take a more standard deck, UW Stone Blade, to a perfect 9-0 record yesterday. He's picked up a couple of losses on the day, but is still right in the running to make Top 8 here at Grand Prix Indy. The players chatted for a bit about the paths that had brought them here, including where they came from and what decks they had played. Laskin reveaed that he "hadn't played a real deck all weekend." He seemed a little excited at the prospect of playing one when Rubin told him that he was playing one of those "real decks."

After losing his Jace, Laskin chose to use Innocent Blood to clear the board, leaving his own Mishra's Factory as the only creature. Rubin had an answer for that as well, using Sword to Plowshares to remove the animated land. Afterwards, Laskin tried to recruit another planeswalker to his team, this time a Liliana of the Veil, but Rubin went down to one card to Force of Will it, removing a Jace, the Mind Sculptor he couldn't cast on three lands. Three lands were enough to cast a Sword of Feast and Famine, but he had no creatures to equip. Laskin set up a protective guard with a Pernicious Deed should Rubin find an attacker, ironically able to kill the pro-green and black giving equipment.

With a flash, Rubin started to try to get some threats down. First, he tried a Stoneforge Mystic. That met Spell Snare. Then he tried another. That, too, met a Snare, this time coming back thanks to a Snapcaster Mage. When he tried the third one, it did hit the table, fetching him a Batterskull, but Laskin had a Ghastly Demise to immediately kill the Mystic. Even the Batterskul failed to hit the table, Laskin paying five for a Force of Will to stop it. This whole while, Laskin had been beating with a Snapcaster Mage. Eventually, a Creeping Tar Pit joined the fun, dropping Rubin to two. When Laskin fired it up for the final attack, Rubin tried to cast a Snapcaster Mage to Swords to Plowshares the animated lad, but Laskin had a counter for it.

Lewis Laskin 1 – Steve Rubin 0

Game 2

Despite having only five cards to start with, Rubin had managed to find answers for all but one of Laskin's threats. Unfortunately, that one threat went all the way against him. The first game was classic control-on-control, with each threat being answered in turn by both players. The one threat that wasn't handled ended up deciding the game.

While sideboarding, Rubin noticed that Laskin was staring blankly at his fifteen cards.

"You finally play against a real deck and you don't know how to sideboard" Rubin joked?

With a wide-eyed glance at his sideboard, Laskin just exhaled and said, "I have no idea."

Game two started with both players keeping their opening draws, though Laskin quickly started hitting Rubin's hand with a series of Raven's Crimes. Rubin protected some of his cards with a Brainstorm, using it and Misty Rainforest to see as many cards as possible. Not wanting the Crime to continue, Rubin used a Wasteland to get rid of Laskin's Underground Sea, his only black source. It took a few turns before he was able to peel a Bayou, and rather than go back to criminal behaviors, he chose instead a Pernicious Deed. When he upped his game one more step with a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Rubin was ready with Force of Will.

From that point, there were a few machine-gun turns of draw go from both players, neither playing land. This favored Laskin as he had four in play already to Rubin's two. Eventually, Rubin had to start discarding, clearly displeased. Fortunately for him, the immediate net turn finally brought a land, but his new Mishra's Factory was Wastelanded immediately. Laskin made a Liliana of the Veil on his next turn, but opted not to activate her, revealing that his five cards were "really good." At the end of the turn, Rubin made a Snapcaster Mage simply to have an attacker to take out Liliana, but it only got to hit her once before Laskin used Deed for two. Rubin continued to fail to improve his lot and passed the turn.

Lewis Laskin

Things finally got a little interesting on the following turn when Laskin aimed an Inquisition of Kozilek at Rubin. In his hand, Laskin saw that he had "all the goods." Swords to Plowshares, Pyroblast, Vendilion Clique, Jace, Oblivion Ring, Batterskull, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant, make for quite an imposing grip of cards. Laskin chose to take the Clique, which was fortunate, as Rubin immediately drew into another blue source. Unfortunately, this left him unable to play anything in his hand still, and he had to pass the turn. Not wanting Rubin to hide his juice from Liliana, Laskin won a counter war over a measly Brainstorm that Rubin tried to use to get himself into the game.

As I pored over the decklists today to prepare for the Day 2 metagame breakdown, I made careful note of decks that intrigued me. This was the first time I came across Lewis Laskin's BUG Control deck. I didn't really register anything about it except that it was different. When I see that color combination in Legacy, I always assume it's just Team America, but this didn't have any of the trademark cards at all. In fact, it had almost none of them. Noting nothing more than it being a "different" deck, I moved on. A couple rounds later, Frank Lepore came over to let me know about this cool BUG Control deck that he'd seen Laskin playing, and playing well. This jogged my memory and I went to go snag the decklist and give it a look over. Here it is:

At first glance, there honestly wasn't anything that really stood out to me about it. It just seemed to be a collection of cards. They were good cards, sure, but this is Legacy. All of the cards are good. At first glance, I wasn't sure how this deck was going to get there. It had two Snapcaster Mages, a handful of planeswalkers, and some man-lands backed up by Life from the Loam. It just seemed so slow in a format where players can't really afford to be. But despite this, Laskin was winning. I wanted to find out more, so I put him in the feature match area to square off with Steve Rubin, who had taken UW Stone Blade to a 9-0 record on Day 1. As you may have read, Laskin won. More importantly, I got to see the deck in action, and I finally understood.

BUG Deck

I sat down with Laskin after the match to chat a little about his very unorthodox choice for this weekend.

"Heh, traditionally, I'm a Knight of the Reliquary player. But I figured Maverick (GW Stone Blade) would be a popular deck for this tournament, and I get far fewer draws with this slow deck than I ever would playing Mother of Runes mirror matches all weekend. The real reason I wanted to play this deck was because I think all of the cards in the deck, especially Pernicious Deed, are really well positioned to be exceptional in the format. People are playing fewer planeswalkers these days, and with Stoneforge Mystic being so popular...Deed really takes care of everything."

Despite all of this, I still felt as though the deck was nothing more than a pile of reasonably good cards. I saw flashes of it coming together in the feature math, but Laskin really helped drive home how wrong I was.

"Every card in this deck works together. People are playing a lot of on-for-one threats right now. Maverick is actually one of the only decks that commits multiple threats to the board at a time. So I've got a nice little suite of targeted removal. If I play against those decks that do put more out there for me, like Maverick or Elves, I've got the early removal to hold me over until I can wipe the board clear with Damnation or Deed. I played against an Elves player earlier who built a massive army up and drew a bunch of cards with Regal Force...and I wiped them all away with my maindeck Damnation.

I also have these Inquisition of Kozileks which can take out important targets in my opponent's hands, as well as all of these Counterspells to stop the other important cards I saw there. Eventually, I can just get the game locked up with a Liliana of the Veil or a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. A lot of people told me that Liliana was just bad since people could just burn her off if they didn't have a guy, but they've never played her. If they have a guy, I can play Liliana and Diabolic Edict it and they still have to spend a burn spell to finish her. If they don't, I can just add a loyalty as soon as I play her, and then I get the card they discard plus two more if they want to kill her. Either way, I come out ahead. And if I have Life from the Loam going with Liliana, it gets even better."

Despite these synergies present in his deck, Laskin does admit that there are a few things that he's realized as the tournament went on.

"Originally, I thought about having two more Ponders in the deck, but you really do need all of the other cards in the deck. It's very tight. You don't want to cut removal spells to add search spells when what you'd be searching for is removal. It's better to just have more spells. I'm not even really that big a fan of the Ponders. They're just too aggressive for this deck. Also, I have been considering cutting the third Force of Will. It's only really good against combo, and there aren't too many people playing it right now. It's another one of those cards that is just better in the aggressive decks."

Lewis Laskin

Laskin wasn't the first person to bring that up about Force of Will. A few others that I'd talked to this weekend mentioned that Force of Will just isn't that great because you really don't want to two-for-one yourself like that in this format. About the only decks that really love having a full complement of the spell are the "aggressive" blue decks: the combo decks. At that point, the whole idea is to have a couple of free counterspells that you can use to protect your combo. It's not about stopping other people's offensive spells; it's about stopping their attempts to stop you. How the times have changed. Despite this though, the ones who were making these comments to me were still playing multiple copies of Force of Will, and Laskin sweetly summed up why: "It's still Force of Will."

"The only real problems this deck has are burn decks, which no one should be playing, and combo decks, which you're weak against, but you can still have game against. The creature decks generally don't stand a chance. I'm really pleased with this deck in this format."

His record shows every reason why he should be.

Sunday, 2:46 p.m. - Quick Hits - What did you play?

by Frank Lepore

What did you play? If you had to play something other than your deck in the tournament, what would it be?

Brian Kibler – GW Aggro

"I wouldn't have played Stoneforge Mystic. That card I just so bad. I want to be doing more proactive things than that. You're just getting this really expensive equipment that doesn't really do anything. I'd just rather play more Qasali Pridemages. Pridemage is insane right now, and I'd actually play a fourth. I like the idea of adding something like Lingering Souls to the deck, but it doesn't interact very well with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben"

"I'd definitely play the same deck. I think it's one of the best decks in the format, and it's very well rounded. I had a brew that I was about to play, but it just wasn't putting up the same results; although it was able to reanimate a Knight of the Reliquary via a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge! I think my worst matchup is probably the Stone-Blade decks, but I would love to face High Tide since I have Counterbalance and a million one mana spells."

Matt Costa – RUG delver (Canadian Threshold)

"No, the deck is very good. I mean, I don't really play legacy, so up until Friday night I was going to play UW Stone-Blade.

I think Thought Scour really pushes it over the top, since you can do things you couldn't do with Mental Note, like ruin their stacking with a Ponder if they kept, or milling their threat after Submerging it. I don't really want to face the Esper Stone-Blade lists. I feel like Lingering Souls solves a lot of the problems the deck had."

Patrick Sullivan – UR Delver

"If I didn't play UR Delver, I would have probably played Zoo. The Combo matches are pretty bad. Faster combo decks are pretty hard to deal with, but slower combos are usually a little better. Basically the faster and less interactive their decks are, the worse it is for my deck. I didn't run any counters like the normal UR Delver lists; I just have Mindbreak Trap in the sideboard.

The players casually bantered back and forth before the match discussing various plays and moments throughout their careers. You'd never guess that a Top 8 appearance was resting on the fate of this match!

Game 1

Adam rolled an eleven, while Alix rolled a ten. Adam led off with...a mulligan. Alix was satisfied with his opener, but Adam has to go down to five. Not the best of starts, but we've seen players come back from much worse.

Eventually Adam was able to keep on five and they were off. Both players led with Islands, and Adam followed with a Tundra. Alix attempted a Merchant Scroll, but Adam said no with a Mana leak. On Adam's turn he proceeded to brainstorm then played a Polluted Delta. A land and a pass from Alix and Adam was searching for a Volcanic Island. He drew for his turn then attempted to cast a Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

"How many cards?" Alix inquired.

"Two," Adam responded.

"It resolves."

Adam passed back the turn after brainstorming with Jace, and Alix attempted to resolve a High Tide. It resolved, then he immediately cast a Time Spiral with his remaining three lands. Both players shuffled up, drew their new seven, and Alix untapped his four lands that he could tap for eight mana! Alix would then play a Merchant Scroll and search out a second High Tide, which would allow his Islands to produce three blue mana each when tapped. A Ponder from Alix followed by a Candelabra could spell doom for Adam, but the game went on. Alix cast a second Ponder followed by a Brainstorm which allowed him to dig deeper through his deck to keep the combo in motion. Another Time Spiral from Alix virtually guaranteed it. Both players shuffled up and drew another full grip of seven cards.

Alix Hatfield

High Tide number three for Alix meant each of his Islands were now producing four mana each! He cast a Cunning Wish and Adam inquired about the storm count.

"Storm is...?"

"Eleven," Alix responded.

Alix thought long and hard about what he would search for, before deciding on a Blue Sun's Zenith. Alix then chose to target himself and draw six cards. With two Islands open – a potential eight mana – Adam acknowledged. Alix tapped another Island, floting three mana, and cast the fourth High Tide. Five blue mana per Island was the count.

Alix cast a Preordain followed by a brainstorm as he looked for a win condition. He found it in a second Candelabra of Tawnos. Alix asked Adam if he would concede if he could show Adam the path to victory and Adam agreed. Alix ran through the motions of Blue Sun's Zenith'ing Adam for the remainder of his cards and the game was over.

Alix Hatfield 1, Adam Yurchick 0

Game 2

"I'll start," Adam noted. Both players kept and Adam led with a Misty Rainforest. A first turn Ponder from Alix was par for the course when most of his deck one mana cantrips. Another land from Adam and it was back and forth. Alix attempted a turn two Merchant Scroll, but Adam had the ideal counter in the form of a Spell Snare. A Preordain from Alix and his deck velocity was off the charts. He played a land then passed the turn to Adam.

Adam cracked two of his fetch lands and attempted to cast a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. In response Alix chose to Meditate. Adam then responded by cracking a third fetch land and letting the Meditate resolve. Four cards and a missed turn would be the price Alix paid. Adam Brainstormed with Jace before passing the turn...back to himself. He took his second turn which consisted of a Stoneforge Mystic searching up a Batterskull, and a land.

Alix went to 10 from his Scalding Tarn and drew for his turn. He played a second Scalding Tarn and passed the turn After Adam put a Batterskull into play, threatening exactly ten damage, it was on to game three.

Alix Hatfield 1, Adam Yurchick 1

Game 3

Alix was on the play here which could give him the momentum he needed to take the match. He led with a first turn Candelabra, while Adam had a Tundra. Alix cast a ponder following by land. Adam laid a land then passed the turn. Both players were content to build their mana bases in the early game.

Alix cast a Brainstorm and cracked a Scalding Tarn after putting his two cards back on top. Alix cast another Brainstorm on his turn, followed by a Ponder; he was sculpting the perfect hand. It didn't stop there though, as Alix played a secondPonder! After Alix had tapped out and passed the turn, Adam responded with a Vendilion Clique, threatening to ruin Alix's well crafted plans.

Alix revealed two Force of Will, a High Tide, a Cunning Wish, a Time Spiral, and a Flusterstorm. Adam let him keep them all and untapped. After crashing for three damage he attempted to cast a Stoneforge Mystic. This gave Alix pause, but it ultimately resolved and Adam found a Batterskull. With little gas in Alix's hand the game was looking good for Adam. Alix cast a High Tide, and Adam attempted to Force of Will it. This was met with a Force of Will by Alix. High Tide resolved and he floated four mana before untapping all three lands with his Candelabra. Alix then cast Time Spiral with a mere one blue mana floating when the dust settled.

Adam Yurchick

He played a land then attempted to cast a Meditate. Adam had the hard counter for it in the form of a Counterspell. Alix played a Pact of Negation to counter it, but Adam had the Force of Will to target the Meditate for a second time. Alix then passed the turn, and since time was called during Adam's turn, Adam was turn on turn one. He attacked Alix down to eight life with a Factory and his two creatures, and passed the turn.

Alex untapped, cracked his fetchland and drew his card for the turn...